How to List Work Experience on a CV (With Examples)

List your work experience on a CV in reverse-chronological order: put your most recent job first, and for each role write your job title, the company, the location, and the dates, followed by three to six bullet points that show what you achieved. Reverse-chronological simply means newest first. This is the layout most employers and hiring software expect, so it is the safest place to start.

Your work experience is usually the section that decides whether you get an interview. Get the format right and fill it with results, and the rest of your CV has far less work to do.

The standard format and order

Every job in your work experience section should follow the same shape, so the reader can scan it fast. Use this order:

1. Job title — the role you held (for example, Marketing Coordinator).
2. Company name and location — where you worked, and the city or "Remote".
3. Dates — the month and year you started and finished (for example, Mar 2022 – Present).
4. Bullet points — three to six lines showing what you did and achieved.

List your jobs from newest to oldest. Keep the styling identical for every role: the same font, the same spacing, and the dates in the same place each time. Consistency makes your CV look organised and helps an ATS (applicant tracking system, the software that scans your CV before a person reads it) pull out the right details.

Here is what one entry looks like laid out:

Senior Barista — Bluebird Coffee, Manchester Jun 2021 – Present

• Trained 8 new staff and cut onboarding time from 3 weeks to 10 days.
• Redesigned the morning workflow, reducing average wait time by 25%.

Notice the title, company, and dates sit at the top, and the bullets do the selling underneath.

Turn duties into achievements

The biggest mistake people make with work experience on a CV is listing duties. A duty is what you were supposed to do. An achievement is what actually happened, ideally with a number attached. Employers already know roughly what a job involves; they want to know how well you did it.

Watch a flat duty become a result:

Before: "Responsible for handling customer complaints and answering emails."

After: "Resolved 40+ customer emails a day and lifted our satisfaction score from 82% to 94% in six months."

The "after" version proves the point with a number. You will not always have exact figures, and that is fine. Estimates ("about 30 orders a day"), percentages, and time saved all count. If you are stuck, build your CV free with CVify AI and let it rewrite a plain bullet into an achievement-style one, then prompt you for the missing detail.

A simple formula for every bullet

Each bullet point works best when it follows the same three-part shape:

• Start with a strong action verb.
• Say what you did.
• Add a result or number where you can.

That is it. "Led a team of 5 to deliver a website redesign two weeks early" follows the formula: verb (led), action (delivered a redesign), result (two weeks early).

Strong action verbs to start your bullets

Weak openers like "responsible for" or "helped with" make you sound passive. Lead with a verb that shows ownership instead. Useful ones include:

• Built, created, designed, developed — for things you made.
• Led, managed, coordinated, trained — for leading people or projects.
• Grew, increased, boosted, doubled — for growth and results.
• Cut, reduced, saved, streamlined — for efficiency and savings.
• Launched, delivered, shipped, completed — for finishing things.
• Won, secured, achieved, exceeded — for hitting targets.

Pick verbs that are true to what you did, and try not to repeat the same one down the page.

How far back to go and what to include

You do not need every job you have ever had. Focus on the last 10 to 15 years and the roles that relate to the job you want. Give your most recent and relevant jobs the most detail. Older or unrelated roles can shrink to a single line, or drop off entirely.

A few practical rules:

• Match the job. Move your most relevant bullets to the top of each role, and mirror the words the job advert uses.
• Keep dates clear. Use month and year so your timeline is easy to follow.
• Mind the gaps. Short breaks are normal; here is how to explain employment gaps without drawing extra attention to them.
• Stay honest. Only list things you could talk about confidently in an interview.

If you are still building the rest of the document, our step-by-step guide on how to write a CV walks through every section in order.

A quick before-and-after entry

Here is a full role that mixes everything above. First the weak version:

Sales Assistant — Retail Co

• Responsible for serving customers.
• Helped with stock.
• Worked on the till.

Now the stronger version:

Sales Assistant — Retail Co, Leeds Jan 2020 – Aug 2023

• Served 100+ customers a day and consistently hit monthly sales targets.
• Reorganised the stockroom, cutting restock time by 30%.
• Trained 3 seasonal staff during the busy holiday period.

Same job, same person. The second version just leads with verbs, adds numbers, and puts the title, company, location, and dates in a clean, scannable shape.

Key takeaways

• List work experience in reverse-chronological order: newest job first.
• For each role, include job title, company and location, dates, and bullet points.
• Turn duties into achievements by adding a result or number wherever you can.
• Start every bullet with a strong action verb, not "responsible for".
• Focus on the last 10 to 15 years and the roles most relevant to the job.

Your work experience section does the heavy lifting on your CV, so give it the time it deserves. Once your bullets lead with results, the whole document reads stronger. Ready to put this into practice? Build your CV free with CVify AI and get achievement-focused bullets and a clean, ATS-ready PDF in minutes.